Power Marine Chronicles: Traguns Origin
by Dominic Trungove
Summary: This story gives a description of the power marines third company captains life, before he became a space marine, and after, finishing with the start of the power marines civil war.
1. Chapter 1

Tragun Vorlornce was a troublesome boy at the age of six. He often stole things, because his family was poor. Then again, this was not uncommon, as many families were poor on the planet Halfex. But most of these families still had a proper roof over their heads. His family lived at the end of an alleyway where few people ever went, with a wooden roof propped on stilts. His family worked, but not with enough pay too buy or even rent a house. Often they went hungry for a week or, as they had no money to go by. So, as already mentioned, he stole things, not caring from whom, and brought them home to the family shelter. When his parents arrived back from work, they scolded him whenever he showed what he had stolen, and made him return it, along with a full apology. He also liked to tell tall tales. The stealing started a month after Tragun's fifth birthday and was by now the norm, and accepted by the people in Mossica City, even the Imperial Guard garrison, who would normally shoot thieves, even if they returned the items. In fact, the reason Tragun wasn't shot the first time he stole was because, despite the commissars orders, none of the guardsmen would shoot a small child. A year after the stealing had started, everything changed in Tragun's life, and these changes resulted in him becoming captain of the power marines third company.

"Ma! Ma!" Tragun yelled. His mother looked wearily at him, while his father patched up the roof that had been damaged in the previous nights strong wind. "Stolen something else today?" she asked angrily. "No, ma, theres a giant rock in the sky!" "What?" she replied, not in the mood for any more of his tales. "No more of your lies, I need to finish washing your second set of clothes AGAIN." "No, ma, there really is, half the city are gathered in the square, where the view is best!" And indeed, voices were coming from that direction again. "Fine, I'll take a break and lets look at this giant floating rock of yours." She muttered wearily. They went to the town center, leaving Tragun's father to his work. His mother, who was called Jessica, looked up at the rock, and her face went white. While she may be living on the street, but she was one of the few poor people who had got an education. Or remembered anything about xenos space craft. The floating rock was an Ork Rok, and more were fast appearing.

Warboss BludStabz looked eagerly at the planet below, licking his lips. Almost all of his fleet was there. He wanted a good fight, and nothing in the galaxy would stop him. "Boss, da udda rokz is here! We'ze ready ta attack!" a gretchin said to him. "Good. Letz give da humies hell! Bomb dem and kaunch da roxz!" "You got it, boss!"

Tragun looked up at his mothers face, white as a sheet, then looked at the sky as more rocks appeared. "Ma, why are you sca-" he was cut off by a loud BOOM! A bomb had hit the middle of the square, the explosion killing all nearby it, and those on the outskirts of the square were thrown back. Traguns head smacked against a wall, and everything went dark.

"WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" BluStabz yelled as he hacked his way through guardsmen who had gathered in the square to combat him and the other orks in his rok. The skirmish was brief and bloody, resulting in thousands of dead guardsmen, hundreds of dead orks and thousands of dead civilians. "BOYZ! KILL DA HUMIES DAT ARE UNCONSCIOUS!" he yelled, when suddenly a las round punched into his chest, knocking him back. Suddenly, a hundred storm troopers, twenty chimera tanks and two leman russ battle tanks appeard, and more orks were killed. BludStabz charged at the commissar leading the assault, and in ten minutes, the weak attempt at resistance had been stamped out. "FORGET DA UNCONSCIOUS ONEZ! LOOK AROUND FOR MORE O' DEM HUMIES DAT ARE ON DERE FEET!" he roared, and the orks spread out.

Tragun groaned, and sat up. He touched the back of his head, which was throbbing and felt dried blood and a massive lump. "Ow..." then he looked around the square and vomited as he saw thousands of corpses. But then, the nearest him, made him sink to his knees and sob. His mother, a slugga round in her chest, a terrified expression on her face. Then anger replaced his grief, which was then replaced by worry. What about his father? He stood up, ingnored the dead and the faint sounds of battle in the distance, and looked at the sun. It was just on the verge of completely disappearing, meaning that he had been unconscious for at least two hours. He crept towards the alley where he lived. When he arrived, his eyes filled with tears. At the end of the alley, his family shelter was on the ground, and his father was lying dead on the ground next to an ork. A bloody hammer was next to him, and the ork had a hammer shaped dent on its skull. His father had several slugga rounds and axe wounds in him. A tiny smile appeard as he realised that at least his father had taken one of the greenskins with him to hell. But the smile was gone as full realisation hit Tragun. He was an orphan. The planet was under assault, and probably soon to be under ork control. He would have to live alone, trying to find scraps of food and hiding from orks. He collapsed onto the ground from pain, grief and exhaustion and cried himself to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Tragun woke to the sound of guttural, deep voices. He looked up wearily, and saw shadows, large, slightly human shadows, at the entrance to the alley. "Now dat was a good fight! Lasted all day, but it was way too short, Gutza! Dere were lots of dem humies, but dey dropped like slimy grotz on da firin' line!" one ork said. The one called Gutza replied: "Oi, too true, same dat iz, I waz 'opin for a longa fight, but da humiez went too easily, and da rokz is all too damaged to fly off to more planetz, so we'z stuck on dis 'ere rock. Letz 'ope somma da humiez on nearby planetz want dis 'un back, or else dis waz one big waste o' time!" "Gutza, don't let da boss 'ere ya sayin dat! Remember wot happened ta Nailzy! Orkz need both dere arms ta figh' an' he aint got neider of em anymore, after wot he sed about 'ow we shouldn'ta been followin' dis waaaaaaaaagh!" Tragun moaned softly after trying to comprehend the orks speech. It was just too much. "Oi, wot waz dat, Chompadeff?" Gutza asked. "Sounded l like one o' dem humies wotz had 'is insides all knocked about! Lookz like we didn't get all of da humiez, time fer more fightin'!" and with that, the two ork boyz entered the alley and saw Tragun lying, looking at them. "Ere, Gutza, dis 'un don't look like 'e would put up much o' a fight at all! Still, we'd betta kill 'im, da boss will go mad if he findz we've let any of da humiez live! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

What happened next was a blur, and, days later, he would have already forgotten what had happened. The two orks attacked, firing wildly and missing (as orks do). Tragun, terrified at first, was suddenly overcome by rage at what the orks had done to his family, his home, his planet. The first ork, Gutza, fired and cackled, and Tragun merely dodged the shots, then leaped forward, smashing his small fist into the orks jaw. The ork, surprised, was then killed as Chompadeff fired at Tragun, and he responded by whirling the stunned ork in front of the shot. He then grabbed Gutza's gun, took careful aim at the orks head, and fired, hitting between the eyes, and instantly killing the greenskin. Had he remembered this event, he would have wondered how he, at age six, had been able to kill two orks, when he was in pain, and filled with grief. He then passed out again, and woke several hours later next to two corpses, already starting to forget what he had done. Then he realised he was hungry, and he would have to steal something. He cracked his knuckles and stood up, eager for his lunch. Or possibly his breakfast?

Tragun slowly, silently crept behind an ork nob, who was busy looking at the sky, muttering something incomprehensible. Tragun had smelled food on this ork, a strong smell. The smell of Dalvir Fruit, a food only able to grow in the harsh volcanic landscape of the planet Dalvir, in the Dalir Fruit Patch, a large section of fertile ground. The fruit was delicious, and emitted a soft, fragrant smell that made any who smelled it feel a sense of euphoria. Tragun only knew what it tasted like because he had stolen one from the mayor, without anybody finding out, and he had eaten it. Ever since, he had longed to have a taste of it again, and he was so hungry at that moment he didn't even wonder how an ork had gotten it, and why they would keep it (it was highly poisonous to orks). He slipped his hand into the puch on the orks belt, and plucked the fruit from it in short order, maneuvering his hand as to avoid ork teeth that were also stored there. He pocketed the fruit, which had a small bloodstain on the bottom (it was lucky the fruit had to be peeled, as the skin tasted vile) but he didn't care. He stole away into a nearby alleyway, content with his prize. Ten minutes later, in the distance, he heard the nob bellowing at the top of its lungs, screaming for the fruit. Tragun looked at the entrance to a sewer, shrugged, opened it, ducked in, and closed it, then peeled and ate the fruit. And that became his daily routine, steal some food, hide away, eat it, find something to occupy his time. And it stayed that way every day while the planet was under ork control.


	3. Chapter 3

Four years. That is how long the orks held onto Halfex. This is how long brutality reigned over the civilians and surviving soldiers. Of the planets original population of twenty-four billion humans, eighteen billion had been killed in the initial attack. The remaining six billion all did one of three things; went into hiding, went into slavery, or were killed. One billion were killed. Three billion went into slavery under the savage orks, forced to mine and help repair the ork ships, thousands dying every day. But, then, at least the three billion were fed decent amounts of food. The two billion who went into hiding were constantly running, hiding, scrounging around the sites of battlefields from the first attack. Some even went so far as to steal from the orks, like Tragun. Many were killed when trying to do this, and thus were forced to steal from and fight with each other. The orks, little did they know, would never have been able to repair their ships, they were too badly damaged. They would be stuck on that planet forever, unable to leave, getting into endless bloody warfare with each other, butchering any of the humans who had gone into hiding. This would have happened, but, unfortunately for the orks, a distress signal had been sent out before the orks wiped out the distress signal traveled for three years. Finally, it reached the ears of humans willing to aid. Unfortunately for the orks, these were not merely Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle. These were Space Marines. And, even worse for them, they were space marines who had a point to prove, and would fly a battle barge through the very heart of the warp, burning heretic worlds in its wake, to do it. These were the Power Marines, only formed two hundred years before.

"Captain." A scout said. Yariel Anties, captain of the Power Marines first company, turned around. A scout had addressed him. "Sir, we just received a distress signal. It's three years old." "Play it, please." "Yes sir." The scout turned on the little hand-held recording and a grainy voice spoke; **"- - Governor - Alendro -f Halfex, - - att-k-d, I re-ea- Orks ha-e attacked. Ork war-ss is BludStabz, at-a-k to- m-ch for guardsmen to take, pl-s- s-nd aid. Oh no, -hey'-e here!" **The remainder of the footage consisted of yelling, screaming, static, gunfire, before being cut off entirely and replaced with just static. "How much could _you _make of that, soldier?" he asked. "Not much, sir. Just that Halfex was attacked by an ork waaaaaaaaaaagh! led by a certain BludStabz." "Yes, I made that much of it too. Hey, didn't the Imperium lose contact with that planet about three years ago?" "Yes, sir." "Huh. Well, I know who BludStabz is, you wouldn't, before your time, but..." he then had a flashback to when he, captain Yariel Anties and Chapter Master Crau Gann had stood shoulder to shoulder, alone holding off seven thousand orks, until finally, the reinforcements had arrived. Unfortunately BludStabz had arrived at the same time, and nearly killed Yariel, injuring Crau before escaping to his rok. This warboss, the power marines had a personal grudge against, and he was also one of the most wanted orks in the eastern fringe. And, as a relatively young chapter, only two hundred years old, they still had to prove to other chapters that they were able to handle impossible tasks. He of course was on a battle barge one month away from his home system, Isphyda, were the power marines resided, and he knew that Crau would want to know about this. "Put a vox link through to Isphyda I. Get it directly to Chapter Master Crau. I need to tell him about this, and get permission to bring three companies to Halfex." "Yes sir."

"Yes. Definitely." Crau said after hearing the news from Yariel. "But you're taking four companies, and I'm coming with you, with the entire honour guard." "Works for me, chapter master." "Yariel, we've been best friends for over a hundred years, I expect yout to refer to me as Crau, not Chapter Master." "Yes, Crau." Yariel said, although this time there was a hint of a snigger in his voice. He sighed, terminating the vox link. "I will never understand that man."

Tragun, now a ten year old, looked through the purse on the ground. It, surprisingly, contained food. And teeth. "Must have come from an ork." he muttered, putting the stale bread in his mouth and ripping a bit off. He chewed it and looked up at the sky bitterly. So much had changed in four years. He had been exposed to horrors no child should know of, he had lost his parents, all of his few friends, all he had ever known was gone, destroyed by the orks. And in that moment, he felt a deep hate that no child should feel. He felt an urge to avenge the deaths of all who had lived on Halfex, he wanted to go to right up to BludStabz and rip the ork bastards head off of its shoulders and make it into a hat. And then he added to his fantasy; urinating down BludStabz neck looked down at his bread. Suddenly, he snorted in disgust and threw the stale bread away. He hated having to eat like that. He refused to eat any more. Then a noise made him look up. The noise was not from what he saw, it was from the ork sneaking up behind him, but it made his jaw drop. In the sky, far above, four massive, gleaming, gothic ships were in the air, jet black with a red trim. On the front and sides of each ship was red horseshoe symbol, a red _ultramarines _symbol, with an upside-down one on top of it. And suddenly, in the distance, on the ground, flames flared up as the ships started their barrage. A dozen smaller ships, barely visible, came out of the four large ones. Suddenly, some sixth sense warned him of danger, and he rolled to the side as an axe blade thudded into the ground where he was a moment before. He turned, and rage filled him as he saw an ork boy, aiming its gun at him. He was about to charge the ork and punch at it, hoping to kill it, but suddenly, a large, high pitched whining, screaming sound filled the air, a large shockwave of sound hit him, and he was thrown back, the ork staggered. A sonic boom. Just as the ork recovered and started aiming at him again, a massive, black, pyramid-like structure with red trim that was ten times the height of him crushed the ork. He saw it had doors on it, with the two ultramarine symbols and some had a double-headed eagle. There were roughly five doors. The colours on the craft itself were barely able to be comprehended, as the craft was glowing red from flying down so fast. Then he smiled, collapsed to his knees and sobbed with relief as tears streamed down his face. The space marines had come.

The doors thudded down, and eleven men who were in massive black armour that was white trimmed (their helmets where white, except for one) and they were more than five times the size of Tragun. Suddenly, three more drop pods slammed down around him, their doors clanged down and thirty more men came out. They too wore black, white trimmed armour with white helmets. Tragun looked in awe at them, their massive weapons that were bigger than him, a single shot would have demolished him. He then eyed the one who's helmet was black. Forty boltguns leveled on him, and one man, who wore a laurel wreath on his helmet, said "A gretchin! Fire!" But before they could, the one with a black helmet replied; "NO, YOU FOOL, DO NOT SHOOT! IT'S A HUMAN CHILD!" The sergeant looked a little crestfallen. "Sorry, captain, just got a little excited." "Understandable, Landrios, what with us traveling through the warp for nearly a year, not doing anything exciting. But a word of advice, _**don't**_assume its an ork if they don't have GREEN SKIN." he said. Sergeant Landrios stood to attention. "Yes, sir." "Oh, for the love of the emperor, you aren't a scout or a guardsmen, call me BROTHER or CAPTAIN." Truth be told, Yariel was enjoying this little conversation. But then he remembered they had company. He turned to Tragun. "Hello. What's your name?" he asked softly. But, of course, it came out terrifying through the helmets vox. Well, terrifying to a ten year old. Tragun tried to speak, but he was scared witless. He was relieved too, he knew these were space marines, but they had nearly shot him. Yariel realised this, took off his helmet and smiled. "See?" he said in his real voice, not through the helmets vox, which he hadn't done in ages. "I'm human too." Tragun finally found courage after seeing Yariel take off his helmet, but not enough, there were still forty terrifying people with over sized guns. "Brothers, maybe take off your helmets? Thwn the young man may find enough courage to speak." he said casually, resisting the urge to chuckle. They did, and finally, Tragun found words. "You're space marines." he muttered. "Yes we are, unless a hundred and fifty years have been a lie!" he replied. Tragun laughed weakly at the joke. "What's your name?" And finally, he had found the confidence to speak loudly and clearly. "Tragun. Tragun Vorlornce."


	4. Chapter 4

Yariel thought for a second after the child spoke his name. "Tell me, young man, do you have anyone to go to once we retake this world for the Imperium?" he asked. "No." Tragun said. "Before the orks came, I was homeless and had only my parents. Then, when the orks arrived, the... Killed my parents. So even if you did retake the planet, I would be worse of than before." "Well, then, I am about to make you an offer so you can do something with your life. You may even be able to get revenge on Bludstabz, the warboss." Tragun was suddenly intent on Yariel, and no longer cared for anything else. "Yes?" he asked. "Be warned, whatever you say, you can't go back. Whatever you say will govern the rest of your life." "Go on, please." Yariel sighed for a moment. "Would you like to become a space marine?" he asked.

Tragun was immediately going to say yes. Then he thought for a moment. Yes, he would have a life, a future, but being a space marine meant hard work, devotion, faith in the emperor, centuries of unending war. He suddenly wasn't so sure. Be a homeless, worthless person scrounging for scraps of food every day, or join the ranks of the emperors finest, the adeptus astartes. Finally, after a minute of hard thinking, he replied: "Yes." Yariel nodded, then turned on his vox caster. "Danny, could you come down here? We have a new recruit to pick up." The reply came: "Yariel, you're supposed to be making xenos pay for every human killed on this planet, blah blah blah, not RECRUITING! Why not set up a business, Ohai, welcome to the Imperium of man, introducing the power marines, WE'RE ALWAYS FREAKING RECRUITING!" came the irritated reply. Truth be told, Daniel didn't really care about what Yariel was and wasn't supposed to be doing, he was more focused on the fact that he himself wasn't actually scheduled to fight unless the marines were losing badly, which was never going to happen on a backwards world like this. He had been looking forward to a week or two of no duties but maybe patching up the paint job on his storm raven, now he had to fly down through a warzone to pick up a little kid. "Daniel, just obey my orders." "Fine, fine, captain. I'll be down in ten minutes, provided I don't get gunned down." and the vox signal was terminated.

Tragun looked eagerly up at the sky, waiting for a storm raven to land. He gave up after thirty minutes and sat down, looking at the ground. Despite the fact that the space marines should have moved out by now, they were waiting with Tragun to protect him from any marauding orks, since the drop pods hadn't been armed with weaponry. Suddenly, they were bathed in heat from the wash of engines. Tragun looked up and saw a jet black with white trim storm raven hovering in the air above. It landed, the doors opened, and the pilot, a young space marine with black hair and green eyes. Despite his youthful appearance, his hair was streaked with grey. "Yariel, what are ya doing, bringing me all the way from _Maelstorm of Fury _for a kid." "Danny boy, your definition of 'ten minutes' is not the same as mine. So stop whining and take the kid." "Yeah, yeah, alright. Come on, kid. All aboard the Danny Boy express, welcome to my storm raven, I call her _thunderstorm_. She could run from Ultramar to Fenris in just a day, no joke." before Tragun could say anything, Yariel interrupted: "Ultramar to Fenris in a day, my ass. If so, how did you take half an hour to get here when you said ten minutes?" "Hey, you try flying through a warzone in ten minutes. Who's the ace pilot here? You? Didn't think so. Come on, kid." Tragun nodded and followed him into the craft. "Follow me into the cockpit, I'll show you what it's like to fly through the skies." "OK, sir." Daniel laughed. "Call me Danny or Danny boy, Daniel if you must, but please, no calling me 'sir'." "Sorry, Danny." "No worries. Now, prepare to see some fancy flying, on my way down here, you would not believe the lengths the orks went through to shoot me down in flames. Take a seat and buckle your seat belt, hope you didn't have breakfast." he said, so Tragun sat down and buckled the seat belt. It did no good, as it was meant to take into account the size of a space marine, not a ten year old normal human. Tragun held onto the sides of the seat and vowed he wouldn't let go until he was safely on the battle barge. The small ship rose into the air, the end suddenly pointing up, the craft was now vertical. "HOLD TIGHT! OFF WE GO!" and the _thunderstorm _shot into the sky.

Suddenly, the _thunderstorm _spun around and fell down several meters. "What was that?" Tragun asked nervously. "Were we hit?" "Nah, just had to bust out some of my fancy dodging skills, or we'd have exploded into a fireball. Did you see the projectile?" Now that Tragun thought of it, he had seen something outside of the cockpit flying through air. "Ork anti aircraft. This is why I said I hope you had no breakfast." and, in the next twenty minutes, the ship ducked and weaved and spiralled through the air, flipping, accelerating, breaking. Tragun nearly vomited. Then, the sky got darker and was filled with stars. Tragun looked back and saw that they had left Halfex. He then looked forwards again and saw one of the ships, the one they were heading for. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you; the _maelstorm of fury_, famous battle barge, flagship of the power marines chapter fleet!" Danny said. The docking bay doors were open, and the _thunderstorm _shot towards it, suddenly stopping when they entered, then slowly descending onto the hangar floor. "And now, goodbye, kiddo. Head for the apothacarium and ask for apothacary Damien. See ya!" Danny said. Tragun undid the seat belt, stood up shakily, left the ship, and walked towards the exit of the hangar.


	5. Chapter 5

Apothecary Samiar looked down at the small boy in front of him. "And you were told to ask me for Damien? What the hell does Danny think he's doing, sending a kid and asking for a particular apothecary. Then again, Damien IS good with kids..." he muttered. "OK, I'll take you to him right now, kiddo."

Damien looked up as Samiar and a child entered his room. He was currently reading through a part of the codex astartes that he had started to forget a little, and he was not wearing his armour, only robes. "What have we here, a new recruit, Samiar?" "Yes." "Why couldn't he be sent to another apothecary? I'm busy taking a look at the codex astartes." "Danny requested he be sent to you, because you're the best with kids." "Which means I have to make practically every space marine in the chapter..." he muttered. "Have him wait while I get my armour on." "Yes, Damien."

After half an hour of waiting in Damiens study, the apothecary briskly strolled into the room and looked at Tragun, wearing full power armour apart from the helmet. "Come with me, please." "Yes, sir." After walking for ten minutes, the two walked into a large, ovular room. Damien pointed at a stretcher like contraption in the center of the room. "Forgive me for not having proper equipment with what you are to lay on, we really didn't expect to have a new recruit and so didn't bring the equipment, except for gene seed. Please, lie down." Tragun did as he was instructed. He then noticed straps, which Damien buckled onto him, preventing him from moving. "Now, I'm going to inject you with this drug. It'll just put you too sleep for a couple of hours while I place the gene seed in your body." "If I'll be asleep, what are the straps for?" "We're in the middle of a battle. Orks are firing their anti aircraft, and if any hit while you were NOT strapped down, you would fly off the bed and, if I was, say, cutting into you to place in second heart, I would probably accidentally kill you." "OK." Tragun said, nervously. Damien nodded, then injected the drug into Traguns vein, on the left hand. Tragun felt nothing except the sting of an injection, but then his eyelids drooped and he was asleep.

Tragun woke up several hours later, looking up at Damien. "Hey, didn't you used to be a bit bigger?" he asked groggily. "No, you merely grew a small amount, as the gene seed stimulated your growth hormones. This will continue to happen as you grow, and you will be a couple feet taller than a normal human when you are not wearing armour." "OK." Suddenly, Tragun felt an urge to spit, as there was something making his mouth burn. He spat, and saliva with a darkish green tinge came from his mouth. When it landed on the floor, it sizzled and steam wafted from the slightly melted floor. "As a space marine, your saliva is acidic. After a bit of training, you can shut off the acidic saliva and use normal spit. You can turn the acidic saliva on and off again. It only hurts you for the first day while your body gets used to it. Also, you now have two hearts to support you increased amount of blood required. Your ribcage is now three times as hard as before and will gradually harden for a month or so. When you are injured it will heal a huge amount faster, and..." Damien continued to explain all of the changes that Tragun would go through now he was a space marine, and how they were similar and yet different to that of a normal human. One thing that intrigued Tragun was: "So, you mean, I can rest half of my brain at once, and so never have to go to sleep again?" "Yes, useful on the battlefield, but not entirely healthy to do it all the time, so you should try to rest normally." "And I can gain some of a creatures memories by tasting its flesh, and any poison I ingest will be sent to my second stomach?" "Yes, the one that is for digesting poison only. But be warned, it will not save you from poisoned weapons that go directly to your bloodstream, and some poisons are too powerful for even your second stomach, which is where the Oolitic Kidney will come in useful. Also, on the subject of poison, in poisonous atmospheres, you can close off your normal lungs in favour of the multi-lung, which will allow you to breath poison gas, air, or even allow you to breathe water." "Cool." Tragun said, grinning. "Now, when the battle is over and we are back on Isphyda I, you will be handed over to the tenth company, and will be looked after and trained by our master of recruits, Marius. Until then, you will remain in my care."

Yariel swung his sword at Bludstabz and the blade severed the warbosses arm, resulting in a large tactical advantage for the space marines in melee against him. The ork howled in pain and fired his gun at Yariel, missing. Scores of ork boyz rushed on Yariel as the warboss backed away, and nobz swamped the other space marines, giving Bludstabz a clear route to escape. He, followed by his mekboy, ran towards the tellyporta that the mek had recently constructed. "Ow much juice 'ave ya got in dat dere tellyporta?" "Only enough ta tellyport us ta our home planet, den da tellyporta will blowz up, it will." "Goodz. Dem udder orkz don't deserve ta live, not bein' able ta hold off a couple 'undred umiez!" Bludstabz replied.

Damien was busy teaching Tragun some basic information about the codex astartes when he got a vox signal from Samiar. "Damien, you're needed in the docking bay." "What is it?" "Bludstabz got away, and Yariel, along with seventeen of the eighteen surviving space marines of his task force, are up here and are critically wounded. There were just too many orks." "OK. I'll be right there." He terminated the vox and turned to Tragun. "I have to tend to the wounds of Yariel and his task force survivors." "What's wrong with them?" Tragun asked, fearfully. "They are critically injured and in need of immediate medical attention, and only two other apothecaries are available, not enough to tend to the wounds of eighteen. They need me to assist. Come, if you wish." "OK."

Danny looked at Damien as he and Tragun entered the hangar. The eighteen wounded space marines were lying on the ground, with Samiar and apothecary Nero tending to their wounds. Only one of the space marines had escaped with minor wounds, and was looking sadly at his injured, some dying, comrades. "What are you doing here, Daniel?" Damien asked. "Well, I was the only one on the hangar when the thunderhawk arrived with them, I was touching up the _thunderstorms _paint job. I was ordered to stay for some reason, so here I am." Damien nodded and walked past him to Yariel, the one with the worst of the injuries. He looked at Nero, who was tending to him. "Is he going to live? Hell, is he going to recover from his injuries without having to be put in a dreadnought?" "Yes, but not if I get distracted. Go help Samiar with the other seventeen. Or maybe give some counselling to the guy who isn't so badly injured. He's disgracing the chapter, being traumatized at a battle going wrong." Damien looked sourly at him insulting the space marine who had lost his sergeant and several good friends. "Leave him alone." Nero sighed angrily. "Do you WANT Yariel to die because you're distracting me? Holy throne..." he muttered before turning his attention back to the first company captain.


	6. Chapter 6

After the space marines had Damien tending to them, all but three made a full recovery. One was forced to be placed in a dreadnought and the other two died. Fortunately, the bodies of those who had died on the planet were recovered and their gene seed extracted. Halfex was retaken in just a week, and the power marines remained for two months while imperial guard forces traveled to the planet. When they arrived, the power marines left, and the guard regiments protected the world for eight years while it repopulated. The ork slaves were all rescued. Within twenty years of the orks defeat, the planet Halfex was back to normal.

It was eight years since Tragun had become a space marine. He had just found out that Halfex had been repopulated and the guard regiments had been shipped back to their homeworlds. He smiled, then, Marius walked up to him. He looked up at the grizzled old scout who said: "What are you smiling about? Tomorrow is your first mission, in which you could die! You should be scared, boy!" He said. "Sorry, sir, I just heard some good news about my home planet." Marius sighed. He had trouble understanding. power marines who had not come from Isphyda or, as the original one hundred who remained did, Ultramar. "Look soldier, your time as a normal human is over, has been for eight years. Stop reminiscing about the past, about a planet you probably won't ever see again. It's unhealthy, especially for a space marine." "Yes sir, sorry sir." Tragun muttered.

Tragun walked into the briefing room, in which nine other scouts, as well as Chapter Master Crau Gann and Captain Yariel Anties, where standing around a holographic table. Crau looked up at Tragun. "You're five minutes late soldier. A space marine is always on time. Remember that for your next mission." He said. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." He said nervously. He took his place at the table, next to the sergeant, a twenty-eight year old scout who, after this mission and the traditional mission with Marius, would become a devastator. "So you're the rookie of the team, huh?" He muttered. "Now," Crau said. "Your mission, due to you having a rookie on your team, is going to be relatively simple. We have picked up strange energy readings on Isphyda III. We also recently lost contact with the area around the readings. You are going to get onto a storm raven, fly to the planet, and then do some recon around the area and find out what is going on. Should you encounter an enemy, do not engage. Fall back to a safe position and report your situation, after which the storm raven will come and pick you up. Yariel, you wished to say something to our recruits before sending them off?" "Wha-? Uh, yes, that's why I came to the briefing. Now, even though you aren't supposed to engage the enemy, if there is one, if you are forced to fight, then do not do a frontal attack. Engage in guerrilla combat and stay hidden until such a time as you can fall back and report. Also, take these experimental bolter rounds. They are supposed to make almost no sound when they are fired and when they explode in the enemy, but they've never been tested, so we don't know if it's true." He handed them all thirty strange, slightly spherical bolter rounds each. "Also, try not to get killed on the mission, at least not until you've reported." He added. He grinned. "Sorry, that was a little harsh. But whatever, off you go, to the hanger. Danny boy is waiting there for you."

On the way to the hangar, the space marines stopped off to pick up their weapons. Traguns was the newest, shiniest one. "Not gonna be so shiny for long after a few missions of combat." The sergeant, who's name was Johnathen, observed. "How good is your aim, er..." "My name is Tragun." "Uh, yeah, how good is your aim, Tragun?" "It's all right, I've never missed a target in practice." "Yeah, but they were not moving targets. I wonder how good you'll be on the battlefield..." he muttered to himself. "Anyway, we should go, we're a couple minutes late already." He said, grabbing his normal ammunition, just in case.

Danny looked impatiently at the hanger door as ten scouts walked in. "What in the name of the emperor took you lot so long?" He asked angrily. "We took a little too long gathering our weapons." Johnathen explained. "A little too long, I'll say, you're half an hour late! Now get in the _thunderstorm_, we need to move. The scouts obliged, and they were off, flying to Isphyda III. They arrived in two hours.

The scouts unloaded from the _thunderbolt _as she landed in the designated landing zone. "Guys, be back by about nightfall. At night, Snappers hunt." Danny said through the vox. "What the hell are Snappers?" Johnathen asked. "Ah, sorry, forgot that none of you guys are from Isphyda III. They're a species of carnivorous creatures that look like deer apart from the fact that they have claws attached to the hooves and their head is like a lions. Their fur is dark brown, and you could easily shoot past it, but their skin is harder than terminator armour, and so is very hard to penetrate. If you encounter any, shoot the eyes or open mouth. Also, their teeth are hard as diamond and their jaws are stronger than the arms of a daemon prince." Tragun gulped as he heard this, and Johnathen replied: "OK, we'll be back by nightfall unless we encounter enemies. Then, if we haven't found anything today and we haven't searched the entire area, we'll go again tomorrow." "Gotcha." Johnathen terminated his vox signal and turned to the rest of the scouts. "We'll split up into five groups of two. Fan out and cover as much ground as possible. Keep in touch, and report every ten minutes. After two hours, head back here. Night should fall in about four hours. Be back before then, we don't want to fight any Snappers." "Yes, sergeant." Everyone said. "OK. Rookie, you're with me." He then divided the other eight into their pairs. "Come on, Tragun." He said. The two moved to the West.

After one hour, Tragun heard a snuffling noise. "What was that?" he asked nervously. Johnathen pointed to an area about twnety meters ahead, where the ground dropped slightly. In the center of this circle of lowered ground, slept a deer-like creature with claws on its hooves and a lions head. It was resting atop the half eaten carcass of a real deer. "A Snapper." Johnathen breathed. "Don't make any noise. Just give the hollow a wide berth of about ten meters, and we shouldn't wake it." Tragun nodded and did so. They then set off, and soon the Snapper was far behind them.

"This is team 2 reporting in. We haven't found anything yet." "Got it." Johnathen said. "Team 3 here. Still just featureless land." "Gotcha." "Team five, reporting." "Got y- Hang on, why didn't team four report in?" Tragun shrugged, and the other six scouts said they didn't know through the vox. "OK, keep up your search and report in at regular intervals again. The rookie and I will go to team 4s last known location, and try to find them before we have to head back." "Yes, sir." the other scouts said in unison. Before the signal was terminated, the scout from team three said: "Hold on, before, about five minutes ago, I heard a bolter round being fired from around where team four was." "Got it, soldier. So there might be an enemy. Stay alert." He said, terminating the vox signal. "Come on, rookie. We've got a couple of scouts to find."

After twenty minutes, they found the bodies. After the pair had walked into a forested area, they pretty much gave up hope of finding the lost scouts. Then, they entered a clearing, where there were two dead bodies, the scouts from team four. "There IS an enemy here... I was hoping we'd at least reach the settlement before encountering anyone." Johnathen muttered. Tragun looked in horror at the bodies. It wasn't the first time he had seen corpses, but he was friends with these people. Johnathen looked at the first body, with a plasma burn on the back. "this one was the first to go. The enemy, armed with plasma weaponry, sneaked behind the two and shot him from behind." he muttered. Johnathen then looked at the second dead body, this one with a plasma burn on the face. Next to the corpse was a bolter shell. The muzzle of his gun was still warm. "After his brother was killed, he whirled around and fired his boltgun wildly. It was set to single shot mode, and before he could fire another round, he took a plasma shot to the face. He was instantly killed, like his comrade." "Do you know who the enemy is, sergeant?" Johnathen looked up at Tragun. "Well, no, it could be a few people. Not orks, they don't use plasma weaponry. Wasn't necrons, or there would be no body save for ash." "Are there necrons on this planet?" "Probably not. It probably wasn't eldar or dark eldar, they don't use much plasma weapons apart for the grenades, which would mean a lot more damage to the bodies. Definately not the nids, either. I'm thinking it was either Chaos or Tau." He said. "Well, neither of those two sound very good..." "Correct. The tau will fuck you up at range, chaos will kill you and then tear your corpse to shreds." Suddenly, a plasma burst fired from the treeline and whizzed past Johnathen. "GET DOWN!" he roared and the hit the dirt as more shots flew overhead. Tragun looked forward and saw three orange clad, four fingered, hooved aliens. "TAU!" Johnathen roared when he saw them two. The two stood up quickly and dived for the trees, barely avoiding getting killed. Before the two started running, Johnathen fired three shots from his boltgun, hitting one tau in the throat, and missing the other two. "I killed one, now RUN!" he yelled. The two sprinted off as Johnathen made the ten minute report. "Team four is dead! The Tau Empire are on Isphyda III!" he yelled. The responses were not good. "We need to get back to the stormraven and head back to Isphyda I. There's no telling how many more Tau are here!" He yelled, terminating the vox signal. Suddenly, they were clear of the treeline, and soon, the tau were to. But this time they were joined by seven others, and two gun drones. Plasma fire streaked after them, and it was a wonder none hit. "They're not trying to hit us!" he yelled. "They seem to be to me!" Tragun replied. Johnathen sighed. "What does it tell you when an assassin can't shoot straight?" he asked. "Since when were Tau assassins?" "JUST LISTEN TO THE GOD DAMN METAPHOR!" he yelled back to Tragun. Then he finished: "It tells you he's not really trying! These Tau aren't trying to hit us for some reason?" "Why would that be?" Then, Johnathen stopped, and Tragun did the same. They were back at the Snapper shelter they had discovered before. The Snapper was drowsily staring at them, woken by the noise of yelling and gunfire. It slowly woke up fully and then growled at them, tensing its hind legs, ready to pounce. The Tau stopped behind them, plasma rifles aimed directly at their backs. "Three options, humans." One Tau said. "Surrender to us, join the Tau Empire, and we will save you. Attack us and be gunned down. Or be devoured by the 'Snappers.' None of these options sound tempting to you, do they?" One Tau said. "Aw, fuck off, I choose the Snapper." Johnathen said, before charging down the hollow and firing his boltgun at the Snapper, now set to fully automatic. After a moments thought, Tragun charged down with his sergeant.


	7. Chapter 7

Bolter rounds exploded on the Snapper's hard skin, failing to penetrate. Johnathen threw a krak grenade at the beast, which actually tore its skin a little, but the hole wasn't wide enough for a bolter round or a second grenade. A knife could slip through, but going melee with a Snapper would be suicide. The beast roared and leaped towards the pair, who dived to the side to avoid having their throats torn out. The Tau looked on in irritation. They honestly thought the scouts would have surrendered or at least fought them, not the Snapper. "That's it, I'm killing the humans! Screw this waiting!" One Tau said. "NO!" The leader replied. "Do not waste your ammunition. They will not defeat the beast."

The Snapper roared once again as a bolter round bounced off its hide and exploded in mid-air. "THE MOUTH!" Johnathen roared. "DANNY SAID TO SHOOT IT IN THE MOUTH!" He stopped moving and aimed his boltgun, as the Snapper opened it's mouth to roar once more. But, before he could fire, it pounced on him. The beast sank its fangs into Johnathens left shoulder, and Tragun heard the crunching sound of armour, flesh, bone being crushed. It withdrew its gore-stained teeth from his shoulder, and blood spurted from the gaping wound. Then, sensing that while serious, the wound was not quite fatal to a space marine, the Snapper did the same to his right shoulder. Johnathen collapsed to the ground, lying, barely alive, in a dark red, growing pool of his own blood. Then it turned its bright red eyes to Tragun and jumped, its mouth wide open. Fear paralyzed him. Fear that he was about to join his sergeant. And then that fear turned to anger, which replaced paralysis with strength that none had seen from a scout before. He set his bolter to fully automatic and twenty bolter rounds went down the Snappers throat and exploded inside it, tearing it to shreds from the inside. The corpse thudded to the ground next to him, blood spraying from every opening in its body.

"Impossible... How did he kill it? He is but a scout!" One Tau said. They could not take their eyes off of the dead Snapper. Then they looked at Tragun, and saw him throw something overarm at them. They heard a clattering sound at their feet and looked down to see a grenade. The pin was missing. "RU-" One Tau said before the five Tau close enough to the grenade to be caught in the blast, including him, were killed. The other Tau dived to the ground. Suddenly bolter rounds were whizzing through the air and missing. One Tau looked up, wondering why the scout was missing every shot. He saw why.

_**2 minutes earlier...**_

The Snapper was dead. But Tragun didn't care. He ran to Johnathen and cradled the dying sergeant in his arms. "Sergeant, come on, you can't be dead!" "Not-" Johnathen coughed up a bit of blood before continuing. "Not yet." "Come on, sarge, you still have to do your mission with Marius and become a devastator!" "No," more blood coughed up. "No, it's too late for me. Both my hearts have-" He coughed and hacked for thirty seconds. "Both my hearts have been ruptured, and one of my lungs too." "No, don't say that, you're fine!" Tragun was desperate. "I'm not. My shoulders have both been crushed. Please..." More coughs. "Tell the... Others I died... to protect... my... honour..." And then he stopped breathing. His hands both fell to the ground, and the blood flow slowed, now just a slow, rhythmic pulsing that then died down. Tragun looked up furiously at the Tau who had cause this, and pulled out one of his frag grenades. He hurled it overarm as hard as he could, but then he didn't pay attention to where it landed. He grabbed the dead sergeant with his left hand and held his boltgun with the right. One of the brand new bolter rounds was loaded. He fired and groaned at the sound, which was even louder and worse than before. The bolter round smacked into the gun of a Tau, but instead of destroying the flimsy weapon, the bullet bounced off and exploded in mid air, creating a horrific whining sound that lasted several seconds. "This is even worse than before!" He said, dragging the sergeant and firing wildly with normal rounds. After a few minutes, he had dragged the body up the other side of the hollow and plasma rounds were whizzing through the air around him. He stopped for a second, took aim, and blew a fire warriors brains out. He then kept moving. Soon, he was clear and he decided it was safe to stop. He stopped wrapped the Johnathens arms around his shoulders and hoisted the dead body onto his back, then holding the boltgun in both hands. He then ran flat out towards where the stormraven was.

Danny scrubbed the top of the _thunderstorm_. "Of all the places for a bird to take a dump, it just HAD to be on my ship..." He muttered angrily. Then, he looked up at the sky. Night was falling. "The others should be back in a few minutes..." he said. Then, he saw that one had already returned. Tragun. "Hey, you're early, Tragun! Hey, where's Johnathen? He should be- Oh." Then he saw the body on Traguns back. He grabbed a paint brush and skimmed over the bird crap before jumping off the ship and walking to Tragun, who was laying the body of Johnathen on the ground. "What happened?" He asked. "Tau. They chased us, their gunfire woke a Snapper. The snapper bit into both his shoulders, ruptured both hearts." "I see." Danny nodded somberly. "The others will be back in a couple of minutes. Just sit tight until then, take a load off. Have something to eat. The mission has been completed. We know that there are Tau on Isphyda III." Tragun shook his head. "We knowthere are Tau, but the mission isn't complete until we know the scale of Tau operations on Isphyda."

The others arrived four minutes later. One group had only one man, and the other was wounded. Another wasn't back. "Only four of you are here? What the hell happened?" Danny asked. "One group was killed by Tau in the forest." Tragun said. Danny nodded. "Another group reported in whilst in the middle of combat, saying they were surrounded by kroot." The scout who was wounded said. Then, he added: "And my group arrived at the settlement." He shook his head gravely. "What happened there?" Tragun asked. "The situation is worse than it first seemed. An entire Tau cadre is camped in the settlement. Enough to take the whole planet. A patrol stumbled on us, killed the other guy and injured me." Danny nodded. "Well, the mission is now complete. We need to get back to Isphyda I and report that a cadre is on this planet and we have five sets of gene seed that need to be recovered." Danny said. "Get in the ship, we're moving out immediately."


End file.
